Barcelona cemetery has a new 100% biodegradable burial area
The new 8,600 square-meter park and cemetery is planted with pines and oaks, ready to host 1,500 new, more environmentally-friendly graves.
Civil society
Moore Foundation pledges extra $300m to boost conservation of Amazon
New targets include ensuring 247 million acres of freshwater and forest ecosystems, as well as Indigenous and local communities’ lands, are effectively managed.
Giant anteaters lead biodiversity resurgence in Argentina’s Iberá
In 2007, the first pair of giant anteaters was reintroduced Iberá reserve, a region from which it had gone extinct decades earlier. Today, more than 200 anteaters live free in the reserve.
Afro-Caribbean community safeguards pristine oceans with new protected area off coast of Colombia
The newly designated Isla Ají marine protected area covers over a total of 24,600 hectares (60,800 acres) of coastal, terrestrial and marine ecosystems on Colombia’s Pacific coast.
Western monarch butterflies make a spectacular comeback in California
The population of monarch butterflies overwintering in California has increased a hundredfold, according to an annual count: more than 247,000 butterflies were counted in 2021, up from 2,000 butterflies in 2020.
Global guinea worm cases drop to 14 total in 2021
The Carter Center began leading the global eradication effort in 1986, when the crippling and potentially deadly parasitic disease infected 3.5 million people.
California redwood forest returned to Indigenous group
The group of 10 tribes that have inhabited the area for thousands of years will be responsible for protecting the 500-acre parcel dubbed Tc’ih-Léh-Dûñ, or “Fish Run Place,” in the Sinkyone language.
First IVF corals successfully spawn on Great Barrier Reef
According to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, coral IVF uses modern technology to breed and distribute corals so they have the highest chance of survival.
12 international donors pledge $1.5 billion to support protection of the Congo Basin forests
The 500 million acres of forests may be the last significant land-based tropical carbon sink in the world, making the forests vitally important in the global fight against climate change.
New York City opens the U.S.’s first safe injection site
The sites, intended to reduce overdose deaths, will serve as a safe place for drug users to inject heroin and other drugs under the supervision of medical professionals.